Making Sense of a Paradox

In his book, A Glossary of Literary Terms, M.H. Abrams describes a paradox as, "...a statement which seems on its face to be self-contradictory or absurd yet turns out to make good sense." Paradoxical language is sometimes used in the Bible to teach us a deeper lesson that we would not learn if the language were more straightforward. For example, Philippians 4:12 says, "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." The first part of the statement says that we do the work, the second part says God does the work. Both are true. Living the Christian life involves a relationship between us and God. We do our part, He does His part. The salvation in this instance isn't talking about the hereafter, but our progress in this current life. Paul, who emphasized eternal salvation through faith -- not works -- isn't referring to the afterlife here.

Tom befuddled by a paradox

This post will focus on the "grace/faith versus works" paradox. The vast majority of Christians will say we are saved by faith, not works, and I absolutely adhere to that. However, it is so easy to get out of balance in either direction. The extreme error on one side is to say, "Well, I'm saved by faith, therefore I can sin to my heart's content." At the other extreme is the legalistic type who feels he must be morally perfect to somehow please God.

I attended a church that emphasized grace (God's unmerited favor towards us) to such an extent that the pastor never encouraged the congregation to do good works. He was afraid the flock would instantly get "under the law" and somehow forget that they were righteous in God's eyes through faith. Although I only attended this church a few times, I listened online to a few dozen of these ultra-grace oriented sermons. I must admit, they sounded good, but large "behavior oriented" sections of the New Testament were conveniently omitted.

At the other extreme (and perhaps more common) are the Christians, and entire churches, who claim to be saved by faith alone, but are so riddled by guilt feelings that, in practice, they behave in such a way that denies their position of grace and imputed righteousness they have before our loving God. There are two kinds of people that exist in this type of church. Both are plagued and motivated by guilt and shame. One would be the worker bee, who constantly volunteers for every job in the church. It seems to me that if this worker bee were an atheist, they'd be volunteering just as much for the local Society of Theistic Deniers. The other type is the cowering, lazy Christian, who feels guilt and shame after every works-oriented sermon.

I must confess that if I were to err, it would be on the side of grace through faith. Just read my second blog post and you'll get the drift. However, I'm not so extreme as to ignore the numerous sections of the New Testament spurring us to do good, be holy in our behavior, love God, love others, obey God, etc.. Examples of behavior-oriented scripture are obvious in 1 John, James and 1 Peter. Even Paul, the apostle of faith, love and grace, often exhorts his audience to behave themselves and obey God.

Churches have split and continue to split over this stuff. The problem is in the paradox, which in my opinion can only be resolved when we embrace our relationship with God. Rules are good and should be followed, but our main focus should be our walk with the Lord, which is the starting point. If you are a Christian, you are saved, you are righteous and pleasing to God, and you are in fellowship with Him because Jesus bore your sins on the cross. Good works will be the result of a relationship with God. Of course, this relationship is cultivated through prayer, worship and Bible reading. In a future post, I'll describe in more detail my opinion of what it means, and doesn't mean, to have a relationship with God.

Paul said, "For now we see in a mirror dimly..." (1 Corinthians 13:12). Life this side of paradise often seems like a walk in darkness. We're working out our salvation (on earth) with fear and trembling, but thankfully it is God who is working in us.